How to Create a Political Attack Ad

This infamous ad was used by George H. W. Bush against Michael Dukakis, costing Dukakis the White House.

In the world of around the clock news coverage, television has come to play an increasingly important role for political campaigns. As a political candidate, you will have to assemble a great team to make political attack ads that make voters second guess your opponents. Political attack ads have played an increasingly important role in high profile campaigns. Creating attack ads will require you to hit your opponent in areas likely to do the greatest amount of damage to their campaign.

Instructions

1. Meet with campaign staff to determine which issues and strengths to highlight in your political ad. Choose issues in which you feel very confident, but where your opponent is lacking. A good political attack ad should highlight your achievements while also highlighting a major policy blunder made by your political opponent.

2. Decide what the tone of your political ad will be. Attack ads often instill fear, hope, strength, courage or cooperation to get your point across in the ad. The tone of your ad should reflect the tone and theme of your campaign, while also foreshadowing a sense of doom if your opponent is elected. The tone should also reflect the leadership style you want to convey to voters to make them feel as though they know you and your leadership style. The point of the ad is to create a bond between you and voters by showing them how much you care and separating them from your opponent by illustrating that they don't have voter's best interests at heart or lack the experience to help them.

3. Dig up as much dirt as possible on your opponents. How you use the information depends on how aggressive you want your ad to be, but personal and professional information is fair game. Research voting records, consequences of legislation proposed by your opponent and any other information you find useful to damaging the reputation of your opponent.

4. Create a concept for the political ad to highlight your experience and your opponent's mistakes or lack of experience. Find an area in which your opponent is extremely weak or has made a major mistake and exploit that throughout your attack ad. A good attack ad should portray life under your opponent as doom, gloom and poverty while portraying life under you as prosperity, safety and happiness.

5. Find speeches and statements made by your opponent to use in your attack ads. The most effective political attack ads are ones that use the opponent's own words to discredit them. Just make sure that you're clean when it comes to the policies you're criticizing your opponents about. This attack ad could work against you if it shows you as a hypocrite.

Tips & Warnings

• All facts presented in political ad should be true.

• Keep the ad short and easy to understand.

• Candidate should appear in the ad, either in voice or in person.

• Ads that are too specific won't get through to voters.

• Refrain from attacking your opponent's personal life unless it conflicts with their voting record.